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 Whooper swan (27.03.2012 Sangla polder)

 

This afternoon I went on a somewhat longer trip to the polders of South-east Estonia. In the Rämsi polder near Puhja there has not been much water to start with this year, and the birds are few too. As a new species on my 2012 year list I saw the northern pintail there, it is the 134rd bird species on the year list. The Sangra polder at the east side of Võrtsjärv is properly flooded and quite many birds can be seen – hundreds of geese, ducks and gulls. The Valguta polder on the south-eastern shore of Võrtsjärv was under water during winter and so there is ice everywhere. There were no birds at the polder yet but when the ice finally melts there will certainly be plenty of waterfowl and waders as in the previous year. In Valgamaa, near Tagula, the Väike - Emajõgi has already flooded the Korva water meadow partly and there  are numerous geese, ducks and swans in the area. Among the geese was also a grey goose, a quite tough rarity inland. On the road back to Tartu I also checked the Aardla polder surroundings. The polder itself was quite empty of birds at the moment because there is no flood and Ardla lake is still frozen. On the neighbouring fields however are thousands of geese already; mainly bean geese  can be seen but also large numbers of greater white-fronted geese. Today I found among the others a pink-footed goose and a barnacle goose. All observations from today can be seen in the e-Biodiversity database.